A New Flame
by Redlance-ck
Summary: Brooke gets a late-night visitor


**Disclaimer: **Characters belong to Ryan Murphy, I'm just borrowing them so they can do my bidding for a while.**  
><strong>**A/N:** Inspired by many conversations with Boomwizard and is also dedicated to her. Also, this is totally random and kind of out of nowhere.

And remember! Reviews make me feel loved. And doesn't everyone deserve a little love? ;)

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><p>Brooke awoke to the sound of nails tapping against glass. It sifted into her awareness, coaxing her gently from her slumber with its familiar rhythm; a song she liked? Perhaps a nursery rhyme? Bleary-eyed, she blinked a few times in rapid succession in an attempt to clear away the cobweb remnants of her dreams and came to the sudden realization that she was glad to be freed from them. She'd been dreaming about a fire, hot and blazing, burning everything to cinders around her and she hadn't been alone. Hazy though her mind may be, she could still hear the screams of the person who'd had been with her, even if she could no longer recall the face.<p>

Her room was dark and a quick glance toward the alarm clock on her bedside table told her that it was just after two in the morning. The tapping came again, this time with a slightly more indomitable edge to its cadence, and Brooke clambered from where she lay buried beneath her comforter and sat up. She cast her gaze to her curtained windows and found that the slim beam of moonlight slipping between the gap in the drapes was being obscured by something. Her heart clenched painfully in her chest, fear gripping her momentarily before fleeing in the wake of recognition. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and padded towards the window, footfalls soft against the carpeted floor. Taking a breath, Brooke reached for the curtains, gripping one by the edge and throwing it open.

The sheepishly smiling face of Sam McPherson greeted her, warily hopeful and shadowed by the darkness of the late - or early, Brooke supposed - hour. Her eyes, almost black in the low light, sparkled with something undefined as Brooke flipped the latch on the window and slid it up.

"What are you doing here?" Her stage whisper spilled harshly from her lips, more so than she'd intended and she watched as Sam's already tentative smile faded at the edges.

"I was in the neighborhood?" Sam offered with a slight raise of an eyebrow and Brooke couldn't help but find her tentativeness a little endearing.

"It's two a.m.!" She hissed, her unease overpowering the butterflies fluttering wildly in her stomach. Throwing a glance over her shoulder, Brooke heaved a sigh and set hazel eyes on the girl before her. "Sam, you can't be here." She regretted her phrasing instantly, before Sam's smile dropped away. Dark hair slipped to obscure her face, hiding her expression, and Brooke felt remorse gnaw at the pit of her stomach.

"Is it because of what I am?" And suddenly Sam's face was illuminated, bright blue flames reaching up to melt the shadows. She lifted her hand, now encased in the blue fire, and held it between the sill and herself. Brooke watched transfixed as the brunette slowly flourished her fingers. The flames danced along them, flaring at the tips when Sam flexed her palm, and bathed her drawn features in an ethereal glow. Her eyebrows were knitted together and the look of consternation she wore tugged at something inside of Brooke with such an unexpected force that she almost swooned out of the window. It made her feel ill, sick to her stomach with something that lingered between grief and regret. Sam stared at the flames enveloping her hand with sad eyes and Brooke was suddenly gripped by the thought that she'd do anything to make her smile again.

"No." Brooke said resolutely, her tone so determined that it almost sounded like a challenge, but still Sam stared into the electric blue fire. "Sammie..." Reaching out, the blonde slid her hand inside a curtain of dark hair and pressed her hand against a surprisingly warm cheek. Thought it really shouldn't have been surprising at all; Sam was always warm whenever Brooke touched her. She brushed her thumb against Sam's cheekbone and gently urged the other girl's head up. Brown eyes as deep and endless as the night above them finally met hazel and a sigh sifted from Brooke as a familiar bolt of **something** was pulled through her. Taking a breath, she exhaled shakily. "This isn't about what you can do." She said, her change in wording pointed as she stared at Sam and continued to absently stroke the skin beneath her thumb. Her lips slid into an easy, playful smile as she leaned a little further out of the window and looked down between them. "But if my dad wakes up and finds me flirting with a girl who's hovering in midair outside of my bedroom window, I'm going to be at a loss for words on how to explain it." Sam cracked a half smile and, moving only her eyes so as not to disturb Brooke's hand on her, glanced down towards the flower bed sitting a good ten feet below her feet. The same hue of blue created a halo beneath the soles of her shoes; Brooke liked to joke about how Sam had forked out extra for ground effects.

"You might have a point." Sam said with a low chuckle. Then, with a quickness that betrayed the suddenness of a realized thought, her gazed darted back up. "Flirting?" She queried, arching an eyebrow. "This is what you consider flirting?" Brooke smirked.

"No," she purred and leaned in, "but this is." Sam anticipatorily swung her hand out to the side as Brooke pressed their lips together, frowning into the kiss as she felt the heat surrounding her hand swell and then explode in small a blue inferno. Brooke giggled against Sam's mouth, but made no move to break the kiss and instead threaded the fingers of her other hand into soft, dark tresses and drew the other girl closer. The quiet crackling of the fire was their only accompaniment, as warm and vibrant as their embrace, and when Brooke broke the kiss and pressed her forehead against Sam's, she felt sure her heart was swelling as violently as the brunette's flame had.

"That's more than just… You're going to kill me." Sam said breathlessly after a moment, eyes closed. "You know that, right?" Brooke combed her fingers through Sam's hair and hummed contentedly at the feel of it.

"Can't have that. Guess I'll just have to stop kissing you." Sam's eyes popped open and she narrowed her eyes, the tip of her tongue pressed against the inside of her cheek.

"I'm actually pretty okay with taking that risk." Brooke laughed and pulled back, shoving Sam playfully in the shoulder. The brunette beamed winsomely as she floated back a few inches, shaking her hand to extinguish the flame. Brooke leaned with her forearms against the windowsill wearing an expression that seemed to outwardly wonder what she was going to do with the other girl.

"What about the risk of my dad finding you, hmm? How'd you feel about that one, Sammie?" Sam stuck out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout, but Brooke knew when she had her beat. Besides, it was a very real danger and it wasn't as if she wouldn't give her right arm to just be able to invite Sam in.

"Oh it terrifies me to the very core of my being." She confessed, defeated for the evening.

"That's very big of you to admit." Sam floated back, resting her hands atop Brooke's and curving her lips into a coy smile.

"Do I at least get a goodnight kiss?" She asked, and Brooke felt her heart give an exuberant thud in her chest. Blonde hair bounced as she nodded, but she held up a finger to halt Sam.

"Only if you do the thing." She whispered, breath ghosting across Sam's face. Brown eyes rolled but Brooke just smiled.

"You know I'm not supposed to." But Sam couldn't refuse her anything. "Fine, fine. Give me my sugar." She waggled her eyebrows and then leaned in, capturing Brooke's lips and swallowing her chuckle. And for a moment, Brooke wondered if this was what flying felt like.

"Okay," Brooke said when they parted, "get out of here."

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Sam paused, pulling up the arm of her jacket reveal her wristwatch. "Or I guess in a couple of hours?" Brooke nodded.

"Meet you at your locker." After a moment of entirely too intense staring, Brooke inclined her head upward as if indicating the stars overhead. Sam smiled and it was so heartbreakingly tender that it made Brooke's breath catch. And then in a burst of blue flames that started just below Brooke window and disappeared into nothing some fifty feet up, Sam was gone. Leaving a burning trail in her wake and a gentle smoldering warmth unlike any Brooke had ever felt to settle against her heart.


End file.
